In 1841, Friedrich List, the leading German economist of the mid 19th century, argued that it was in the nature of more developed countries to kick away the ladder with which they climbed to the top and so deny poorer countries the chance to develop. He wrote: “It is a very common clever device that when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up, in order to deprive others of the means of climbing up after him.” In this video, and subsequent installments of the series, we shall examine how the elites “kick away the ladder” from the rest of us. In this video, we start with economics.
